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WRITER OF QUEENS

About this blog~~

This is just about Queen Victoria, her family and her marriage, written by Susan Flanders, owner of WRITER OF QUEENS blog. I've been studying Queen Victoria since 1988 and have most of her memoirs, letters and biographies. I think about her often, study her, read about her and write about her. She amuses me. She wasn't the widow in black, tucked away in a castle---as most people think--- mourning the death of her beloved husband, Prince Albert. Oh, that was part of her history, but did you know that she was a young girl who knew her own mind, and had the strength to pull away from her overbearing mother and those who tried to control her, thus beginnng a reign which was truly her very own? Victoria had a regal bearing--she was conceived to be a Queen--and had a will of her own.
Sometimes I'm tempted on the WRITER OF QUEENS Blog to write about Victoria more often, but I don't want to overwhelm readers with things that are only about her; thus, I've decided to start another blog for those who are curious about her.
Queen Victoria is a lifetime of study. I've been studying her half my life, and I am still discovering wonderful and new things.

PLEASE SEE MOVIES BELOW

"We had dinner on Saturday, which amused me, as I am very fond of society." Princess Victoria

"I am much obliged to you, dear Uncle, for the extract about Queen Anne, but must beg you, as you have sent me to show what a Queen ought not to be, that you will send me what a Queen ought to be."

"Dear good LEHZEN takes such good care of me (at Ramsgate where the Princess had been very ill) and is so unceasing in her attentions to me that I shall never be able to repay her sufficiently for it but by love and gratitude. She is the most affectionate, devoted, attached and disinterested friend I have and I love her most dearly..."

"We reached Windsor Castle at 6. We went to the Queen's room where (cousin) Ferdinand and (his brother) Augustus were presented to the King. We then went to our rooms. At 1/2 past 7 we dined in St. George's Hall with an immense number of people. Ferdinand looked very well."

Above are two pictures of Victoria and her mother, The Duchess of Kent. The Duchess was widowed when Victoria was just a baby. The family had gone to stay near the sea for the Christmas holidays. The Duke of Kent caught a chill which turned into a fever. Because of the storms that year, it was hard to keep the cottage warm. The Duchess took care of little Victoria who had a cold, too. The rest of the time she spent at her husband's sickbed, as the doctor cupped and bled him. His life began to ebb away---but the Duchess stayed at his side and held his hand. She genuinely loved the man. To her horror, he wasn't strong enough, and he passed away. What would she do, alone, in England, without him? Victoria, in sucession to the Throne, could not leave the country. And the Duchess couldn't leave her. But the royal family had always treated her...well, shabbily. Would they take pity on her now?

KENSINGTON PALACE, Through the Years

Princess Victoria was born at Kensington Palace on a warm spring morning in May, 1819. The Duke of Kent married Victorie, of Germany, mostly to produce an heir to the throne after the death of Princess Charlotte who died in childbirth. The pregnant Victorie, the new Duchess of Kent arrived in England with her husband several months before the birth of their baby---she had to be born on British soil. It was not an easy task for them to get there. The royal family did nothing to help the Duke of Kent, although he was an heir to the throne himself. Finally, after much wrangling, the Prince Regent agreed they could take possession of a large apartment in Kensington Palace. However, the apartment left much to be desired and was literally falling apart in some places. The Duke began renovations---and the Princess was born there about the time the renovations were finished. She had her own nursery. It is the only place she ever lived until she became Queen, at 18. As you will soon find out, many of her memories of her childhood were sad and lonely. Although she always had a nostalgic feeling for the place, once she became Queen, she never returned---prefering Windsor Caslte, and the newly re-done Buckingham Palace.

"Albert is really quite charming, and so excessively handsome." She loved his eyes and delicate mustache and noted that he had 'a fine beautiful figure, broad in the shoulders but a fine wasit; my heart is quite going...'

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Famed Author Discusses New Movie

Also compliments of Indie London

The Young Victoria - Julian Fellowes interview

Interview by Rob Carnevale

product

JULIAN Fellowes, the acclaimed writer, actor, producer and director whose body of work includes writing Gosford Park and appearing in Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, talks about his involvement with The Young Victoria and why he wanted to tell the story of the younger part of her life.

He also explains why Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was instrumental in bringing the project to the big screen in the first place.

Q. What sparked your very clear enthusiasm for this part of Queen Victora’s life?Julian Fellowes: I was just very interested long before this film because I read a book, by chance, and I realised how little I knew of her early years. If someone had said to me: “Do you know about Queen Victoria?” I probably would have said “yes”. But the Queen Victoria I knew was Judi Dench’s Queen Victoria… you know, short, fat, and dark and cross and living in Scotland with a handkerchief on her head. I hadn’t really understood the early life and if I had thought of it at all, I would have assumed that she had a very comfortable growing up, and that she was prepared for the throne, and then accepted it and that was that. I didn’t realise at all that she had survived this emotional battering in order to get there and was immediately fascinated by that.

Q. Could you tell us about the unique involvement of Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, in this film?Julian Fellowes: The Duchess of York had the original idea of making a film about the younger Queen Victoria. She knew [producer] Graham King and she ran into him in LA, I think, and said to him: “We’ve all seen the older Queen, we’ve all seen the widow, but nobody has seen Victoria and Albert as a younger woman and their marriage. We don’t know about the marriage she was in mourning for.” He was very taken with this idea and he decided he’d do it. I was then recruited and the only alteration I asked for was to nudge the story forward a bit so we got the Duchess and Lord Conroy and all the complexities of that.

So, it became the story of Albert essentially from the visit of 1836, when he came over with his brother, rather than only the marriage. They had this quite bumpy first year and then they settled into working together… when their desks were put together. So, she did have the original idea and every good film needs a good idea, so we’re all very, very grateful.

Q. Did she visit the set at all?Julian Fellowes: She came for the Coronation Ball at Lancaster House. She came with both of the princesses. But that was it.

Q. How much research did you do into the period of the time?Julian Fellowes: I knew quite a lot about the period anyway but, of course, when you get a job you then read up and read round it, and all the rest of it. I’m not a believer in modernising the thing, because I think that if you modernise it too much the actual quandry the characters are in ceases the exist. You start to think, “well why doesn’t she just leave him?” And you then fail to create the pressures within the storytelling that mean that wasn’t an option.

So, you have to have a fairly clear idea of the disciplines of that particular world to understand when they were in a spot. I mean, the problem of Victoria’s childhood… if you make it too modern you might think: “Well, don’t hold the hand when you go downstairs!” But that wasn’t the world they were in and that wasn’t a choice that was open to her. You have to show enough of the true detail the period to understand why they were in this predicament.

Q. What did French director Jean Marc Vallée bring to the material having not been someone who grew up with the same knowledge and appreciation of Queen Victoria that we may have?Julian Fellowes: Well, I loved C.R.A.Z.Y and he said to me: “I’ve made a film about a dysfunctional family and I feel this is a film about another one.” He saw these people as a dysfunctional family, not as a series of dukes and duchesses and kings and queens. He saw them as a family whose business yoked them together even though they were completely disparate as personalities. That was his view of the thing, which I think is what comes across in the film.

Q. What was it like having Princess Beatrice on set?Julian Fellowes: She was very good-natured actually. Most of being in a film is waiting – you have five minutes of action and then two and a half hours of waiting and that can be hard for people who aren’t used to it in terms of what they do with their brains for that time. But I thought she was very patient. She’s a very nice girl.

Q. How much did your name help to get access to some of the locations used?Julian Fellowes: That was entirely my address book! [Laughs] No, I don’t think Julian Fellowes opens Julian Fellowes’ door! But they really were wonderful locations. The one I loved best, actually, was the least famous, Ditchley. Blenheim and Wilton are the great houses of England, but Ditchley Park is much smaller than that and fantastically pretty. I loved it. It was Queen Victoria’s private sitting room. But seriously, we got in because of a handsome cheque book!

Q. Do you think there was a plot at the time to put as many Colburgs as possible on the thrones of Europe?Julian Fellowes: Oh there definitely was a plot. It’s a most extraordinary story… but this funny little Dukal house of Colburg, which was totally unimportant, had this adviser and Leopold was very clever. So, there was this kind of scheme to build the family up, so one was married to the Queen of Portugal and became King Consul of Portugal; later one was married to Archduke Maximilian of Austria. First of all, Leopold was married to Princess Charlotte of Wales. So, Leopold in the movie should have been Albert if Princess Charlotte hadn’t died. So, after his death he’s made king of the Belgians and then he gets his other nephew as the consult. He’s got his sister in as the mother.

The Colburgs were really kind of shunted all over the place and by the 1860s they were connected by blood with pretty well every major reigning house… far more than a lot of the more senior families in Germany. What is interesting is that Baron Stockmar, Leopold’s adviser, had this understanding that constitutional monarchy was a different form of government. Up ‘til then, constitutions for most absolute monarchs just meant less fun, and they hadn’t seen it as any kind of alternative political arrangement, just of having less power.

But he saw that if this could be moulded into a real political arrangement it had a much longer shelf life than the idea of absolute monarchy, which people even of that time in the 1830s were beginning to see was not going to last for very much longer in western Europe. So, instead of just abolishing royal houses, they could be adapted and that’s very much a Colburg message. They were a very, very clever house.

Q. Can you just say a bit more about producer Graham King… a Brit who is a real Hollywood player…Julian Fellowes: I’m mad about Graham King, who is a sort of great man. He is a Brit but everyone kind of forgets that. In the year when Helen Mirren won her very well deserved Oscar for The Queen, that was the British Oscars! Nobody noticed that a Briton had won best picture, for The Departed! He is so modest. He is a tremendously courteous man. He’s extremely powerful but doesn’t need to whack you over the head to prove it. Of course, in Hollywood good manners are like a drink on a hot day! And I love working for him.

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Victoria and Albert

29 Minutes of A&E's Victoria and Albert...There are some inaccuracies, but it's not bad!! It will give you an idea of their relationship, well into their marriage. A warning though---the end might make you cry.

Mrs Brown

This should give you some idea of what things were like for Victoria after Prince Albert died. This was filmed at Osborne House, her favorite residence. If it doesn't work, please let me know. (I heard it did---then heard it didn't.)